Friday, June 3, 2011

U.S. and European SMBs Buying Cloud Services

U.S. and Western European small and medium business technology buyers are allocating a larger proportion of their spending to cloud-based services, according to AMI-Partners research.

About 15 percent of U.S. SMBs were buying cloud services in 2010, but that will grow to 15 percent in 2015, AMI-Partners predicts.

At the same time, spending by Western Europe’s 11 million small and medium businesses on cloud services is set to grow at a CAGR of 12.6 percent between now and 2015. See http://www.ami-partners.com/index.php?target=news&mode=details&news_id=205.

U.S. SMB buyers are showing a strong inclination to purchase bundled cloud offerings as opposed to a stand-alone application, AMI-Partners says.

“A significant segment of U.S. SMBs prefer to deploy multiple cloud services in order to achieve flexibility, ease of IT management, and lower CAPEX,” says Donald Best of AMI.

The AMI research shows that 38 percent of U.S. SMBs have a strong preference for obtaining software as a service as part of a package or bundle, versus only 11 percent who are interested in a single service. One third of U.S. SMBs are interested in bundling multiple hosted infrastructure and remotely managed services offerings, versus nine percent of firms who only want a single service.

In Western Europe, adoption of cloud services (SaaS, IaaS and Managed Services) will double by 2015. A key contributor to the impetus of the Cloud is the proliferation of mobile devices, AMI-Partners says.

Nearly two thirds of Western European SMBs surveyed by AMI-Partners equip their employees with smart phones for business purposes, and tablet computers are also experiencing very rapid uptake, according to the study. Some eight percent of SMBs plan to purchase over 1.5 million tablets for their businesses in the next 12 months, the study also found.

“The cloud model’s flexible payment model (pay per user per month) makes access to technology affordable for resource-constrained small and medium businesses,” says Hugh Gibbs, VP Research, EMEA.. “But equally important is that the cloud model eases and speeds up implementation of technology."

About 70 percent of European small businesses have no dedicated IT staff resources.

U.S. Small Businesses Will Spend $36 Billion on Marketing in 2012

Total marketing spending by U.S. small businesses (companies with fewer than 100 employees) will reach $36 billion in 2012, as an increased number of firms invests in advertising and promotional activities, according to Access Markets International Partners.

Spending is expected to be up four percent from 2010 levels.

74% of Enterprises Use Cloud Computing, Survey Finds

Some 74 percent of 573 enterprise executives surveyed by Avenade are using cloud computing. Of organizations yet to adopt cloud services, three quarters say they will do so in the future.

About 60 percent of respondents say cloud computing is a top IT priority for next year. Among C-level executives, 75 percent report cloud computing as a top priority. Some 43 percent of companies surveyed use private cloud services.

The United States has seen steady cloud computing adoption rates with a 19 percent increase since 2009.

Social Network Musical Chairs

Some of us might say there is a game of musical chairs being played by private social networks that believe now is the time to go public. Valuations are debated, but for those of you who think there is a social media bubble going on, the issue is how long before the bubble bursts and one of the IPOs simply breaks the trend line.

The big social network that is the last to raise money may find it waited too long.

LightSquared's LTE breaks GPS in New Mexico

LightSquared is going nowhere with its proposed Long Term Evolution unless it can fix the interference problems it seems to cause to GPS systems.

Deere & Co. has reported to the Federal Communications Commission the risk of "severe interference" on tractors using GPS systems from as far as 20 miles away from a LightSquared tower and "a complete loss of service" between four miles and 22 miles distant.

Separately, public safety officials near the testing area reported LightSquared's tower knocked out their GPS systems in some areas, according to Bill Range, New Mexico's E-911 program director.

The frequencies Lightsquare uses are located close to the frequencies used by satellite navigation systems, and GPS users—particularly the military and police—worry the company's plan to install 40,000 antennas around the country will overpower GPS signals.

In principle, frequency filters should work, but there also is the matter of signal strength. GPS signals are quite weak, compared to the cell tower transmissions. And filter performance will drift with temperature.

Unless LightSquared can conclusively prove it really has a durable fix, it will not get final permission to use its satellite frequencies on the ground, to support LTE service.

LightSquared's LTE breaks GPS in New Mexico trial, angers John Deere

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Enterprises Match Support to End User Technology Choices

At least some enterprises in North America and Europe are trying to work with the growing trend of end users wanting to use their own applications and devices at work. Some information technology executives have created managed digital allowance (MDA) programs that match corporate support to the types of technology users prefer.

These are more closely managed variants of "Bring Your Own Technology" programs, where employees select and often fund the productivity tools they want.

MDA programs provide their workers with a portion of the funds they need to invest in applications and devices of their choice. Rather than dictate a limited range of company-provided mobile devices, this policy adjustment helps employees choose the tools that best suit their work styles, roles, and geographical location.

On the support side, the MDA model requires creation of a flexible service catalog, in which the IT organization matches the support services it provides to specific applications and devices. This increase in choice actually helps reduce service-delivery costs, because it eliminates the old, always-on-call help desk and relies instead on significant user self-service in support and IT service request management.

33% of Brands are Running Mobile Campaigns

A third of companies surveyed by Kingfish Media currently have a mobile strategy in place, and among those who don’t, two thirds plan to have one within the next 12 months.  

Not a lot of investment is currently taking place, though. Only about 12 percent of brands’ marketing spend is on mobile. However, the vast majority of respondents (82 percent) plan to increase their spending on mobile over the next year, with 30 percent taking the budget from mainstream marketing and advertising.

Currently two thirds of companies use a mobile website, while 28 percent are using a native app. Some 27 percent are using both.

In 2012, respondents foresee an increase in native app development as 43 percent plan to have an app and 49 percent report they will be using an app and mobile site.

Most commonly, brands are using mobile initiatives to build or grow relationships, which explain why the most popular content types are currently social media, branded, email capabilities, geo-location or maps and general reference.
Original branded content, ads, expert content and videos are the types of content used most often in mobile format.
Commerce over mobile channels is slow to take hold among respondents. Less than 20 percent are currently conducting mobile commerce, mostly over a mobile web site. Interest does rise for 2012.

Nearly 60 percent are tracking visitors to their website from mobile devices, usually with Google Analytics. Among those tracking, companies are finding that a relatively small percentage of traffic is coming from a mobile device—on average 8%. And only about 10% of customer/prospects are using a mobile app developed by the company.

http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/06/mobile-study-and-content-marketing/

Zoom Wants to Become a "Digital Twin Equipped With Your Institutional Knowledge"

Perplexity and OpenAI hope to use artificial intelligence to challenge Google for search leadership. So Zoom says it will use AI to challen...